Archive for April 25th, 2007

The US House of Representatives voted 218 to 208 on Wednesday to pass a $124 billion war spending bill that would require the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq beginning October 1st.

“Several House members had said they would not try to block the bill negotiated with the Senate in a bid for party unity despite their desire for an earlier, binding withdrawal date,” writes the Associated Press.

The vote came just hours after the US Commander in Iraq, General David H. Petraeus, told lawmakers that a withdrawal timetable would serve to foment chaos in Iraq.

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PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Faced with questions about his age and all-out support for the Iraq war, Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain pitched his experience in seeking to breathe fresh life into his presidential campaign on Wednesday in New Hampshire.

On a cool, gray day in the state that holds the country’s first presidential primary election next January, the 70-year-old formally launched his bid to succeed George W. Bush as president in the November 2008 race with a speech in Portsmouth and later, in Manchester.

He would become the oldest person to be elected president. Ronald Reagan won in 1980 at age 69.

Tonight, the House will vote on the Iraq Accountability Act reported out of conference committee. The bill is grounded in the realities of the war in Iraq, recognizes the strain that this war is placing on our military, recognizes the urgency to hold the Iraqi government accountable, and honors our commitment to our veterans, instead of the failure to meet those commitments that exists now.

As part of the legislation, conferees approved a responsible plan to redeploy U.S. forces in Iraq paired with progress made by the Iraqi government in meeting diplomatic and security benchmarks. The bill will hold the President accountable for meeting his own military readiness standards for our troops. The Iraq Government will also be held accountable for meeting political, economic and security benchmarks established by the Bush Administration and the Iraqis themselves.

This bill is consistent with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and has the support of many retired military generals. The President has to face the reality on the ground in Iraq. And he has to face the reality of accountability in this Congress.

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When the California Democratic Convention begins this weekend, party progressives both inside and outside the San Diego Convention Center will be pressing hard to bring impeachment back on the table as a means of holding the presidency of George W. Bush accountable for crimes they allege have been committed since 2001.

“I’ve been blown away by the response. People are wanting to organize and rally behind one single thing at the convention, and that’s impeachment,” said Joye Swan of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, who is helping lead an effort to pass a resolution expressing the California Democratic Party’s support for impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

But the fight will be complicated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unwillingness to hear their message and the encouragement that her stance may give opponents of the impeachment measure within the California Democratic Party leadership.

Pro-impeachment actions planned

The 2007 California Democratic Convention kicks off on Friday, and its agenda shows there is a lot of ground to cover. But a significant number of activists are eager to make the impeachment of the President a focal point of activity.

STRASBOURG, France, April 25 (Reuters) – The European Parliament on Wednesday called for the resignation of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, adding to mounting pressure on the head of the lending organisation to step down.

Wolfowitz, a former member of the Bush administration, has already faced calls to give up his post after revelations that he approved a promotion and pay raise for his bank-employee girlfriend before she was assigned to work at the U.S. State Department.

Lawmakers asked EU leaders to press the White House over the subject at a EU-U.S. summit in Washington on Monday.

They voted 333-251 with 31 abstentions to include a paragraph in a resolution on transatlantic relations calling on Germany, holder of the 27-nation bloc’s rotating presidency, and the United States to ask Wolfowitz to stand down.

They should “signal to the president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, that his withdrawal from the post would be a welcome step towards preventing the bank’s anti-corruption policy from being undermined”, the paragraph said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are attending the summit with President George W. Bush.

The full resolution was passed by parliament, the only institution in the EU that is directly elected by its citizens.

“By digging in his heels and refusing to resign as President of the World Bank, Wolfowitz is dragging the whole organisation into disrepute and further undermining the credibility of its anti-corruption policy,” said Caroline Lucas, a British member of the Greens.

“If he won’t jump himself, he must be pushed.”

The call by the EU assembly comes as a special World Bank committee examines whether Wolfowitz abused his position or committed ethical lapses as it looks at the promotion of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.

Wolfowitz, a former U.S. deputy defence secretary who helped plan the U.S. invasion of Iraq, has apologised for his handling of Riza’s promotion and pledged to change his management style.

European countries, including Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and France — all large aid givers for anti-poverty projects in the developing world — have expressed concern that Wolfowitz’s leadership is untenable and is damaging the credibility of the poverty-fighting institution.

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Today, Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) wrote to Alberto Gonzales asking him to “promptly supplement your testimony of April 19 with answers to those questions for which you responded that you could not recall or did not know.” You can read the full letter here.

By the senators’ “conservative” count, Gonzales failed to provide answers “well over 60 times.” I’m not sure how many questions Gonzales was asked, but it can’t be much more than that.

Noting that despite weeks of preparation, Gonzales did not appear ready to answer a number of key questions at the hearing, the senators wrote:

“We believe the Committee and our investigation would benefit from you searching and refreshing your recollection and your supplementing your testimony by next Friday to provide the answers to the questions you could not recall last Thursday.”

It’s not often that I’m embarrassed for a figure in this administration, but this is one of those times.

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